How does taking parental leave affect women’s and men’s perceptions as workers and parents? Survey-experimental evidence from Germany, South Korea, and the US

How are mothers and fathers with differing lengths of parental leave perceived as workers and parents, and how do these perceptions vary by gender and cultural context? We answer these questions using original preregistered survey experiments conducted in Germany, South Korea, and the United States—three countries with differing gender norms related to work and parenting. Specifically, we examine perceptions of employees who took either “short,” “medium-length” or “long” parental leaves, based on each country’s parental leave laws. Across all three countries, mothers and fathers who took longer leaves are seen as better parents than those who took shorter or no leave. However, for fathers in Germany and South Korea, this positive effect plateaus or declines after medium-length leave. The impact of leave-taking on perceptions of employees as workers is smaller and more complex: Longer leaves lead to declines in perceived work commitment for both genders. For fathers, however, other outcomes remain largely unchanged by the length of leave. For mothers in Germany and South Korea, by contrast, we find medium and long parental leaves lead to more favorable perceptions in terms of work relationships and overall assessment as workers. These findings suggest competing norms around work and parenting influence how individuals are evaluated based on their leave-taking behaviors, creating stronger incentives for mothers than fathers to take longer leaves in countries with stronger gender conservatism.